Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

How Stratasan Will Help You Know Where to Grow

By Jennifer Keller

In 2021, the Stratasan team set out to better understand the healthcare strategists, marketers, and decision-makers in the industry we serve. We wanted to figure out what motivates them and where they struggle, so we can more effectively sympathize with their concerns and better tailor our products and services to capably address their top priorities.

Since we understand the value of bringing in outside expertise to fill knowledge gaps and amplify internal understanding, we knew it would be helpful to have the support of a team with specific qualifications to do this work. So, we brought on a team skilled at conducting in-depth qualitative research and utilizing simple frameworks to capture a central message.

Throughout this process, we heard a lot that confirmed what we already knew but also uncovered interesting new insights. In this post, we’ll share some common themes from our research, and how we’re pivoting our outreach to more closely align with the ways we provide value.

See Better Results with A Year-Round Planning Process

By Jason Moore

Hospitals have traditionally created an annual strategic plan as a roadmap for achieving growth goals. While still an important step in the growth process, it's becoming clear that a stand alone annual plan won't cut it in today's healthcare world. 

This annual routine has been driven by annual data reporting—a factor that is changing due to increased adoption of the frequently updated all-payer claims data (APCD). Stratasan’s APCD updates monthly, for example, allowing for more frequent market reporting that can lead to plan adjustments.

There is also reason to believe that plans are more widely adopted when more members of the organization are invested in the process. This can be a difficult change in mindset for organizations accustomed to planning that takes place only at the c-suite level.

How can hospitals shift to take advantage of more readily available data insights and make changes that will ensure greater adoption? The answer is an iterative planning process that invites organization-wide input and applies data-backed market insights.

Drive More Patient Volume and Improve Your Bottom Line

By Jackie DeGroat and Megan Reeves

Here’s something you already know: hospitals need physicians in order to drive patient volume. Opening a new service line or expanding an existing one is dependent on successful physician recruitment.

What you may not fully understand is how to involve physicians in a way that engages them at a strategic level. It can be a challenge to incorporate their input, even when you know it’s important to do so. And it can be a particularly difficult prospect for hospitals who have not prioritized this approach in the past, as it means a change to the status quo.

But the reality is that involving physicians in your planning can improve their connection to your hospital and their loyalty to your mission, vision, and values. It can also increase their buy-in, leading them to be more productive and willing participants in service line growth. Additionally, physicians have a firsthand understanding of your patient’s needs. Their input into your strategic growth strategy can lead to better alignment with the needs of your market.

A More Efficient Way to Boost Revenue and Attract Patients

By Tony Camarata

Historically, market performance has been measured through market share, a single snapshot of patients treated. While market share can be used to measure market position, it fails to deliver the complex intricacies of patient choice, which are vital to improving care delivery. Hospitals planners need better visibility into the full continuum of patient choice in order to deliver the right services for their patients.

Share of wallet provides this added visibility by not only showing the patient treatment snapshot, but also showing everywhere else your patients are utilizing care. These insights will lead your team down the path of determining if you can provide that same care to your patients and potentially attract them to choose your hospital over your competition.

A Behind the Curtain Look into Stratasan’s Planning Process

By Jason Moore

As we near the end of 2018, goal setting and annual planning are top of mind for all of us. Strategic planning is a useful process for organizations of all shapes and sizes and a well-defined strategic plan is key for companies that want to thrive, grow, and remain competitive. In this post, I want to give you a peek behind the curtain into our process to help you better understand how we think about and plan for the future of our business.

Stratasan’s co-founder and CTO, Brian Dailey, introduced Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters by Richard Rumelt to our executive leadership team (ELT)* in late 2017. After reading and discussing it as a group, we decided to implement this methodology to our strategic planning process. Starting this process so late in the year though meant our 2018 strategy was not completed until the year had already begun. This limited how effective our 2018 planning could be, but we still recognized that we’d landed on a good process. This year, we were motivated to start earlier and are already seeing positive synergy around our 2019 strategies as a result.

Measure Effectiveness and Communicate Value to Your Organization

By Brian Dailey

One of the great things about attending the Society of Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD) annual conference is talking directly with our customers. If one were to build a Venn diagram of SHSMD attendees and Stratasan clientele, the circles would very nearly overlap.

A common thread I've heard in these conversations is that proving the value of planning and marketing to the rest of the business can be very difficult. Businesses want to see a very clear return on investment, and it's on marketing and planning departments to not only do their jobs, but also communicate the value of their jobs to the rest of the organization. This is especially true as the industry continues to do more with less (as has been very succinctly described in SHSMD's "Bridging Worlds.")

By Morgan Atkins

Within healthcare organizations, teams are now a fundamental unit of organization. One study, published in The Harvard Business Review, found that ‘‘the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50 percent or more’’ over the last two decades and that more than three-quarters of an employee’s day is spent communicating with colleagues at many companies.

With the emphasis on teamwork, it’s important for the practices of these teams to be thoughtfully considered. Particularly, the common and important team effort of brainstorming new ideas together. “Studies show that people working in teams tend to achieve better results and report higher job satisfaction.” The New York Times Magazine reports. Knowing that, we wanted to discuss how brainstorming can be an effective team experience.

By Lee Ann Lambdin and Monika O’Clair

Huggins Hospital: A Planning Success Story

In 2017, Huggins Hospital had a fairly new leadership team and an outdated strategic plan. Given the ever-changing healthcare environment, their plan needed to be updated to reflect the new landscape.

Huggins realized it would be valuable to bring in an outside partner—someone who could bring a fresh perspective and innovative ideas—to guide them through the process. They were looking for a nimble planning process and techniques for seeking meaningful, diverse input into the strategic plan—all of which they found in their partnership with Stratasan.

By Lee Ann Lambdin, Taylor Smith, and Jackie DeGroat

Why It’s Critical for Measuring Progress, Driving Growth, and Meeting Goals

A Playbook for Independent Hospitals and Small Health Systems

Practical Tips for Maintaining a Growth Mindset in your Organization

By Morgan Atkins

Stratasan understands how paramount change is to progress. We strive to be trailblazers in the healthcare space, developing innovative tools and services that address our clients' growth goals. The best way we can effectively lead our clients and provide value is by innovative thinking that challenges the status quo. Our goal is to empower our customers with the strategies that will equip them to more effectively face a challenging and ever-evolving healthcare industry.

At the heart of innovation is the ability to reframe your perspective. Henry Ford once said "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." Often, the question itself limits what you think the possibilities are. If you have an open mind about the possibilities, you maximize your chances of building effective and unexpected solutions.